How Is Andrew Jackson Justified

Andrew Jackson was considered a favorite amongst Americans during his time. He had strong ideas and opinions. During his presidency, the frontier was becoming more and more popular, and his presidency exemplified that. Jackson was considered to be a man of the people by many due to the fact that he filled official positions with people who supported him, more people were allowed to vote for him due to changes in voting laws, and because he believed in limiting the federal government. In the 1824 election, Andrew Jackson was unable to receive a spot in a political office due to what he called a "corrupt bargain" between John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams) and Henry Clay. This led to Jackson strongly utilizing patronage, which is the practice of elected officials (such as the president) giving jobs in political offices to people based on them being friends or supporters, rather than on the basis of being fit for the office. When Jackson became president, he replaced a lot of people in political offices with friends and people who supported him. This was also later referred to as the "spoils system". Jackson justified using this system by saying that the people he appointed had earned their positions and by saying that these appointments wouldn't be permanent. His supporters accepted this and his popularity grew even more.

Previously, people had had to be an adult white land-owning male to vote. Just before this election, however, this was changed so that a person just had to be a white adult male to vote. This allowed more people to vote. Also, many states started to let the voters decide how the election turned out, rather than the state legislatures. This helped Jackson out a lot, because he had the support of a lot of working-class people who might not have been able to vote before these laws had